Hello,

I've been searching for MS44-DC (4x 16 MB parity SIMM @ 100 ns according
to the manual) and all the junk resellers want a small fortune for
those, especially two sets (128 MB total). I've noticed that other
companies (Dataram, Kingston) made "compatible" equivalents of these
modules which are used in MV 3100 (later models), Vax/VS 4000 (later
models) and apparently also certain DECsystems (5100 and possibly
others).

Anyway, i was wondering what would happen if i was to use newer (=
cheaper) parity SIMMs of different capacity instead ? Say 4x 32 MB
kingston @ 60 or 70 ns ? I mean, i know halt of them will be unused even
if things Just Work(TM), but seeing how they are up for sale on ePay at
$20 for four this would hardly bother me :) Would the timing difference
affect anything really ? I assume system bus expects 100 ns chips and
slows down accordingly, so they'll be used at slower speed than they
could be but again, i wouldn't complain about that at all if it just
worked.

I've been thinking about purchasing a lot of those SIMMs for testing
($20 isn't exactly a fortune, and i can stuff them into my PeeCees
should they fail to work with my VS) but i was just wondering if there
is any chance they coudl damage the Vaxstation - i really wouldn't want
that to happen. I see no reason for my VS to get damaged during the
testing but it never hurts to ask :)

So .. if any of you ever used "compatible" (Dataram, Kingston, etc.)
SIMMs for your Vaxstations/(M)Vaxen/Decsystems please let me know what
kind of modules you used (model nuber would be nice though type
[FPM/EDO, parity ?] and speed [XX ns] will do).

Thanks in advance for any info guys.

BTW: i wonder how that company that resells overclocked (?) Vaxstations
managed to squeeze 64 MB SIMMs into that box. Do they provide a
redesigned motherboard (with additional memory address lines) or what ?
How did they go about speeding the CPU up, just by replacing the
oscillators ? They're charging thousands of dollars for the upgrade, i
suppose one could manufacture new SW-compatible computers (using VAX
instruction set) for that kind of money, not just crummy upgrades.

Blaz Antonic